U.S. Pat. No. 8,179,428, to Minami et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an imaging apparatus for an electronic endoscope which uses a “bare chip” of a CCD (charge coupled device) together with a circuit board having approximately the same thickness as the bare chip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,940, to Adler, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an endoscope having restricted dimensions. The endoscope has an image “gatherer,” an image distorter, and an image sensor shaped to fit within the restricted dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,222, to Borelli et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for producing small lenses which may be formed to be anamorphic.
Documents incorporated by reference in the present patent application are to be considered an integral part of the application except that to the extent any terms are defined in these incorporated documents in a manner that conflicts with the definitions made explicitly or implicitly in the present specification, only the definitions in the present specification should be considered.